Ebenezer Obasi

Web Application and Software Developer

Customize Oxwall Forgot-Password Page

The Password Reset page is understandably the most overlook pages of any community website. But it is by no means the least important page of your website. This is where your users go to when they are in deep shit and I don’t think you should rub it in their faces. Or should you?

Clicking on the forget password link (yoursite.com/forget-password) close to your Oxwall sign-in form normally should take you to an isolated section of your website where you are provided with a 350*200 email form with a “go” button.

An Empty Word!

Okay, your join page is looking great! And yes, your sign-in page is awesome too! Then a user forgot his password and clicked the ‘forgot password’ link only to find himself in a deserted world: In a world where there is no navigation menu, no sitename/logo, no single evidence to prove that you are still on the website you were trying to log in, What do you think would be the user’s reaction?

Do you honestly feel that your users (in deep shit) are going to thank you for a page like this? I don’t think so. I was totally dissatisfied with the look of this section of my Oxwall powered site that I became desperate for a change.

Discontent Brings Changes

If you are still reading up to this point it means that; like me in the past, you are discontented with the look of this page and desperate for a change. And like Thomas Edison rightly said “Discontent is the basic necessity of progress”.

These changes are not far fetched. All you have to do is to keep cool and follow my step to step guide below:

Changes that Brings Satisfaction

By the time you get to the bottom of this section, I bet you will be brimming with happiness and satisfaction.

*Make sure to have a backup of your website before you continue this process.

Login to your cpanel/FTP

Navigate to ow_system_plugins/base/views/controllers

Open and edit user_forgot_password.html with a code editor (Download Notepad++ if you don’t have a good code editor)

Replace the entire content of that file with the following code:

Changes that Makes A Difference

I don’t expect you to swallow everything I posted here head shoulder and all :). Of-course, you can make the following changes if you consider it necessary:

The look of the password reset form is a bit weird. You can resize the width by changing 350 to any value of your choice.

If you want to use a different menu on the password reset page, kindly replace {$main_menu} with your menu links.

Change {$bottom_menu} to use a different bottom menu.

Why Does it Matter?

We all accept that the user was a bit dumb to forget his password. But do you think it wise to desert them completely? Changing the look of this page will allow your users to navigate to other pages after resetting their password.

Though, I cannot speak for everyone. Do you have other opinions? Feel free to share them below. Do not hesitate to recommend this to your friends as by so doing you are helping some else to have a better organized website.